35 Modern Family Quotes That’ll Guide Your Every Move

Check out this list of the top 35 Modern Family quotes if you need advice on love, family matters, life, and more!

Modern Family is an American sitcom that shaped the lives and personalities of many people in our generation. It aired for 11 seasons, making the Tucker, Pritchett, and Dunphy families household names!

Yes, it’s a show with lots of funny quips on everything in life. But, beyond the jokes and comical scenes, Modern Family touches the hearts and minds of millions of people. It continues to do so even years after its last episode aired!

So, if you want to revisit your favorite scenes, characters, and lessons, these quotes would be a perfect fit! Read through to the end and find the most meaningful quotes to live by!

Let’s start here.

And don’t forget to check out these Arrested Development quotes and Parks and Recreation quotes.

Best Modern Family Quotes

1. “We do strange things for the people we love. There may be bumps along the way, but we never stop wanting the best for them.” – Claire Dunphy

2. “Life is full of changes. You can fight it or try to make the best of it. And that’s all a lot easier if you’ve got the people who love you to help.” – Jay Pritchett

3. “It’s gonna be tough to say goodbye—it always is. Nobody loves change. But part of life is learning to let things go.” – Phil Dunphy

4. “Everybody’s desperately afraid to be different, you know, in any way. And then, almost overnight, everybody wants to be different. And that is where we win.” – Mitchell Pritchett

5. “Those fears you never get past. So sometimes all you have to do is take a deep breath, hold them close, and hope for the best.” – Phil Dunphy

6. “We all struggle with limitations. Some we’re willing to accept, and some we’re not. It’s never too late to grow in life.” – Jay Pritchett

7. “We all weave a web of lies. Some we tell to try to help the ones we love. And some we tell to try to fool ourselves.” – Luke Dunphy

8. “People can surprise you. You can get used to thinking of them one way, and then they do something that there’s all this depth and dimension that you never knew existed.” – Mitchell Pritchett

9. “Family is family. Whether it’s the one you start out with, the one you end up with, or the family you gain along the way.” – Gloria Delgado-Pritchett

10. “Why not just live your limited days with leaving nothing unsaid? Tell the people who matter the most how you feel.” – Cameron Tucker

Modern Family Quotes for You to Reflect On

11. “Sometimes things work out just the way you want. Sometimes they don’t. But you have to hang in there because 90% of being a dad is just showing up.” – Jay Pritchett

12. “There are dreamers and there are realists in this world. You’d think the dreamers would find the dreamers, and the realists would find the realists, but more often than not, the opposite is true. You see, the dreamers need the realists to keep them from soaring too close to the sun. And the realists, well, without the dreamers, they might never get off the ground.” – Cameron Tucker

13. “I’ve always seen life like a series of doors. Sometimes you get to choose the door you go through, sometimes you don’t get that choice. But you still gotta walk through. So you can either go kicking and screaming or walk through with your head held high.” – Jay Pritchett

14. “It’s scary to let people see the real you, even when these people are your own family. But aren’t they the ones we should be least worried about? The ones who will love us without judging, who forgive our faults and celebrate our imperfections, maybe even encourage us to let our true selves shine through.” – Manny Delgado

15. “Sometimes I don’t understand people. They do the craziest things for the dumbest reasons. They convince themselves that it’ll all work out, despite all evidence to the contrary—which I guess isn’t so bad.” – Jay Pritchett

Funny Modern Family Quotes You’ll Never Tire Of

16. “I would love to be wrong, but I don’t live with the right people for that.” – Claire Dunphy

17. “When life gives you lemonade, make lemons. Life will be all like, ‘What?!’” – Phil Dunphy

18. “Look at them! A minute ago they were babies, and now they’re driving, and soon we’ll all be dead.” – Claire Dunphy

19. “Success is 1% inspiration, 98% perspiration, and 2% attention to detail.” – Phil Dunphy

20. “That’s the whole point of a surprise party. You take somebody you really love and you play ’em like a fool.” – Jay Pritchett

21. “The only time I break a sweat is when we run after the ice cream truck.” – Phil Dunphy

22. “No one wants to think at graduation! It’s graduation, the time when we celebrate being done with thinking.” – Haley Dunphy

23. “With great hotness comes great responsibility.” – Haley Dunphy

24. “In my culture, mothers are very clingy to their sons. In fact, the leading cause of death among Colombian women is when their sons get married, but I’m not like that.” – Gloria Delgado-Pritchett

Modern Family Quotes to Keep In Mind

25. “Take a lesson from parakeets. If you ever feel lonely, just eat in front of a mirror.” – Phil Dunphy

26. “Every time anyone accomplishes anything, they achieve it with the help of a thousand silent heroes.” – Alex Dunphy

27. “What qualifies someone as a hero? Obviously, a hero has to be someone we respect. A person we look up to. A person who is generous of spirit. Who’s willing to grow and learn. Maybe it’s the person you love most in the world. Or the guy who makes the most out of life no matter what anyone thinks. For me though, the hero of my family is my family, because of who we are together.” – Manny Delgado 

Modern Family Quotes That You Will Love

28. “You know how growing up we all have that voice inside our head that tells us we’re not good enough? Well, mine was outside my head driving me to school.” – Claire Dunphy

29. “I am brave. Roller coasters? Love ’em. Scary movies? I’ve seen Ghostbusters like seven times. I regularly drive through neighborhoods that have only recently been gentrified. So yeah, I’m pretty much not afraid of anything—except for clowns.” – Phil Dunphy

30. “Here’s the deal. Girls don’t go for all that romantic stuff. They go for power and success, and since you don’t have either one of those things, you’re gonna be the funny guy.” – Jay Pritchett

More Modern Family Quotes and Conversations for Fans of the Show

31. Haley Marshall: “In Legally Blonde, Elle won her case because she was true to herself and dressed cute.”

Phil Dunphy: “Haley, this is real life, not an excellent movie.”

32. Phil Dunphy: “Do or do not, there is no try.”

Mitchell Pritchett: “Please don’t Yoda me.”

33. Luke Dunphy: “How come you never wrote a poem for me?”

Manny Delgado: “Don’t you get it? They were all for you.”

34. Gloria Delgado-Pritchett: “Manny’s father is taking him for a couple of days to Disneyland, so we’re gonna go to the wine country!”

Jay Pritchett: “We’re gonna drink some wine, eat some good food. You know, we would do something like this a lot more often if it wasn’t for, you know, Manny.”

Gloria Delgado-Pritchett: “It’s good. He keeps us grounded.”

Jay Pritchett: “Yeah. Like fog at the airport.”

35. Jay Pritchett: “You know, it’s—thing about babies, you—you fall in love with a baby with the cutest little fat folds, and then—bam. They’re gone. But it’s okay because in its place is this toddler with the greatest laugh on Earth. And then one day, the toddler’s gone, and in its place, a little kid that asks the most interesting questions you’ve ever heard. And this keeps going on like that, but you never get the chance to miss any of them, ’cause there’s always a new kid to take the place of the old. Until they grow up. And then, in a moment, all those kids you fell in love with walk out the door at the same time.”

Waitress: “Jesus.”

Jay Pritchett: “Oh, I don’t mean to be a bummer. I’m just saying it goes fast. Like the expression, ‘You never know the last time you pick up your kid.’”

Did You Also Grow Up Watching Modern Family?

We live in a rigid society where many essential issues aren’t being addressed and discussed. Thankfully, we have shows like Modern Family that start conversations on these eye-opening topics.

Given its title, it’s no surprise that the show zooms in on modern family issues that are relevant to people across the globe. It covers topics like gender identities, gay marriage, cultural differences, and more. There’s really no shortage of lessons you can learn from this fantastic sitcom!

No matter how many lessons are embedded in the show, one concept holds them all together: love. Whatever kind of relationship we’re talking about, we need to bring love into the equation. After all, love will pull us through whatever differences, disagreements, and problems we encounter in life!

Family doesn’t have to be boxed in just one definition. In fact, you can find family in almost any relationship. Love, compassion, trust, understanding, and support just have to be present—and they have to be the very foundation of your bond.

With that, we hope we were able to refresh your mind with all the great takeaways you can get from Modern Family. Revisit this list whenever you need a good pick-me-up or pieces of advice on how to deal with life!

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Karen Danao

Hi, I’m Karen, a content curator and writer for Quote Ambition; I’m also a marketing and advertising professional. Beyond the keyboard and the screen, I’m someone who’s out to enjoy every bit that life has to offer!

Poetry, philosophy, history, and movies are all topics I love writing about! However, my true passion is in traveling, photography, and finding common ground to which everyone from different cultures can relate.

With the many places I’ve been to, I found that love, inspiration, and happiness are some things that bring people together. No matter how different we are on the outside, I’m a true believer that our emotions don’t lie; if you dig deep into our psyche, we’re all the same inside.

This belief was further amplified when I joined Quote Ambition. Through the quotes I’ve read, collected, organized, and written about, I found that humans are resilient, creative, and compassionate.

We take from each others’ hearts and courage, and it’s through our individual experiences that we learn how to rise above our challenges and pain. In so many ways, Quote Ambition is a platform that allows people from all over the world to gain the inspiration they need anytime, anywhere!

You can find me on MuckRack and LinkedIn.